Glyphs in pvp
Glyphs are most likely the worst set of utilities of the Elementalist, and most likely the worst utilities in the entire game.
Glyph of Lesser elementals can be used for levelling in PvE. Glyph of Renewal can be used in WvW to rez lords.
Glyph of Storms and Glyph of Elemental Power are just plain terrible.
The only Glyph that COULD be slotted is the healing one, as it is safer than Ether Renewal for zerker eles.
Just forget about their existence in pvp.
Glyphs are most likely the worst set of utilities of the Elementalist, and most likely the worst utilities in the entire game.
Glyph of Lesser elementals can be used for levelling in PvE. Glyph of Renewal can be used in WvW to rez lords.
Glyph of Storms and Glyph of Elemental Power are just plain terrible.
The only Glyph that COULD be slotted is the healing one, as it is safer than Ether Renewal for zerker eles.
Just forget about their existence in pvp.
Even then, brilliance is better than harmony much of the time.
Recently i’ve been trying to make a glyph based build.. since i got bored of cantrips, signets are kind of boring and lacking, conjures feel clunky and situational though still have their uses and I do not like the new arcane heal skill (due to the radius.. most vulnerable class jumping in between a group of people).
Though I’m on staff, i’m sure you can bunker as well with the other weapons.
Remember GoEP is a stun breaker. Personally I prefer to use the air effect for weakness, or the chill since i get regen from the trait.. and coupled with any glyph of storms (esp air because of impact number though Earth is great too) on the capture Point.
Glyph of renewal can turn around a fight if you use it right, its why i got the rock solid trait.. the water renewal is probably the best.
Anyway let me get on to the build ive been experimenting with..
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImQbpx1gjDADFhMiQRFUUeszM2A-TkAgzCmIMSZkzIjRSjsGN+A
Hope this helps
tl;dr: glyphs are great, but I don’t think I’ll be going back to them until they get some major improvements.
I ran with glyphs for rather a while, and quite liked their effects, but they’re not as powerful as they need to be to be a lot of help - since they can bring a lot of utility with their 4 potential skills, it’s kind of understandable that balance team don’t want to overbuff them... but only one of their four skills can be active at a time, so I’s like to see them improved a bit.
When Arcane Brilliance came out, I ditched GoEH for it, and don’t see myself going back unless we get a number of good glyph-based traits instead of just the mediocre Inscription and the standard Quick Glyphs. Brilliance heals very well when you’re at a busy point or fighting someone with pets, minions, turrets, it’s got a low cast time so is rarely interrupted, and that blast finisher brings even more utility to me as a staff player.
My other utilities were Arcane Wave, GoEP and GoS. Both of the glyphs are pretty useful - Sandstorm will shut down a minion necro or anyone else’s non-ranged pets, and Lightning Storm/Ice Storm help share your GoEP conditions around a bunch of foes.
I’ve stopped running the elemental elite, apart from maybe for a bit of help destroying the treb on Kyhlo while I focus on taking down a player there - even in this situation, tossing my enemy away with Tornado can be better, especially if I’ve laid down some AoE or even managed a Meteor Shower over the treb. Unless we get given a chained skill to activate their more powerful attacks (maybe with longer cooldowns than they currently appear to have to balance it out a bit) I don’t see them as a more reliable way to deal with foes than the other options.
So yeah, my build was something like this, similar to Dragzter’s (I wonder why...), though with extra blast finishers from heal/utility#1 and Diamond Skin to deal with the ridiculous number of conditions going about, especially as I’m wanting to be able to stay in points but don’t have much cleanse.
Recently I’ve moved away from glyphs to play with other skills, and am currently using something like this. Flame axe gives access to a blast, some mobility, fire fields and a leap finisher; Signet of Air is our shortest-cooldown stunbreak even when untraited, and can serve as a stomping aid if I don’t happen to have Earth Attunement free for Rock Solid.
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Okay, this post got long, sorry about that. In summary:
- Glyphs are cool, especially with their 4-in-1 utility, and some work very well in the right situations.
- Glyph cooldowns are long, and there’s little point in taking any of them if you can’t trait Quick Glyphs. The only revival skill with a longer recharge than ours is on the necro, and is a signet with a practical passive effect when it’s not in use.
- Glyph traits are underwhelming and we really need more choice for them - particularly in other trait lines than air. They change effect based on attunement, so we should be able to trait to improve them whatever trait lines we want to go into.
- The utility that Glyphs are meant to bring to the table is better supplied by other spells, especially conjures. They lack any fields or finishers for synergy with our other abilities.
I just don’t find them useful enough in PvP any more. The new heal means I’m unlikely to ever run GoEH without more traits or at least a revert on Cleansing Water (so we can get double cleanse from GoEH+Inscription+CW), and the other skills just aren’t as powerful as I think they ought to be.
(edited by cheese.4739)
Haha because you taught me it cheese, credit where its due!
It’s fun to run, but I think I’m enjoying the flame axe too much now. I’ll look at glyphs again when they let me combo or grant mobility like it does, or if they’re maybe given a bit more CC than chill/cripple.
Confirming: Glyphs are terrible.
Fort Aspenwood – Elementalist
Character name: Azilyi
Character name: Azilyi
Glyph work fairly well for staff eles in PvP. Between the elemental summons and GoEP, you get enough snares to make sure you hit a lot more often. On demand weakness is also pretty neat. And the heal is good too, obviously.
If you can read this then it is proof that ArenaNet’s moderators just, kind and fair.
Glyph work fairly well for staff eles in PvP. Between the elemental summons and GoEP, you get enough snares to make sure you hit a lot more often. On demand weakness is also pretty neat. And the heal is good too, obviously.
I thought this… but not any more.
1) Summons are kinda terrible – we only get one at a time, so can’t petting zoo things up, and we can’t control them in any way. They’re random procs that will either be killed by cleave/AoE very quickly, or have very little effect on combat. Especially the lesser one.
2) Staff is all about controlling where you are and where your opponents are, with all that lovely ground-targeted AoE. Yes, we have some chill and access to cripple, but if you want to focus on snaring/chasing people this isn’t the way to go about it.
3) Glyph heal: yes, it’s good, but it’s now completely overshadowed by Brilliance for me. The blast finisher is much more utility than a boon (I can blast for might, heals, swiftness, and with current trait setup also protection due to auras), and does this AoE as well. Unless we get a whole bunch of good Glyph traits, I’m not going to be running GoEH again anytime soon.